Bode: Beaverton council must keep faith on 125th

BEAVERTON -- Neighbors opposed to a new route for the extension of Southwest 125th Avenue have found a friend in City Councilor Betty Bode, who has all but promised she will vote for the old route.

The new route and design changes might save the city as much as $3.6 million and have less effect on an adjacent wetlands. But Bode said it was a matter of keeping faith with residents who have been told for the past 10 years that the road would not go by their homes.

"I do have a bias toward keeping the word of previous councils," Bode said at Monday night's council meeting.

The rest of the council seemed sympathetic to residents along Southwest Green Lane, where the new route would connect with Hall Boulevard. But no one went as far as Bode.

Yet even Bode agreed the city should study the new route. The council voted unanimously to set aside $300,000 for engineering and $300,000 for right-of-way acquisition as part of the capital improvements plan.

City staff promised that the council would review the scope of the study before hiring a consultant. Several councilors -- including Dennis Doyle, who takes office as mayor in January -- said they might limit the study to the original plan.

City officials have been talking since the early 1970s about extending the road for nearly three-quarters of a mile north from Brockman Road to Hall Boulevard just south of Hart Road. The original plan, finalized in 1998, placed the intersection with Hall between a wetland along Fanno Creek and the Hallwood Apartments.

The new route instead would follow Green Lane, now a dead end, extending it to an intersection with Hall. Engineers would design the intersection so traffic would have to turn onto Hall, avoiding cut-through traffic on Southwest Cresmoor Drive across the street.

The changes could mean the project costs $11.2 million instead of $14.8 million.

Still, the city has no money set aside for construction.

On Monday night, the council heard from 12 residents who testified against the new route. Most of them live in the Meeker Townhomes at the corner of Green Lane and Hall Boulevard. Tina Kennedy told the council it would be a "bait and switch" if the city approves the new route.

Not everyone favored the old route. Ramona Crocker, who lives in the Greenway neighborhood, said the new design is more likely to be built sooner because it's less expensive.

Eric Johansen, who first testified in favor of the extension 21 years ago, said he was upset that a 1998 citizen committee recommendation might be reversed.

"My big frustration is this is getting processed to death," Johansen said. "Get it funded and get it built."